Flake vs Pellets

[illumnae]

I'm just a little curious about the difference between flake food and pellet food. Some people I know swear by flake, and others prefer pellets. There's some talk going around about pellets not being as good because they swell and may cause indigestion in fish (some say you must pre-soak pellets because of this). My personal preference for pellets stems from the fact that flakes float and discus are, by nature, detritus foragers and hence prefer to eat sinking pellets.

Given equally formulated pellets and flakes (e.g. Ken's veggie sticks vs Ken's veggie flakes, or ON F1 pellets vs ON F1 flakes), what's the real difference?

[Eddie]

I feed both, if I had to choose between the 2, I would roll with pellets. The fish seem to get fuller off of pellets. But, is there a reason to use only 1 and not the other...no. A good flake is an excellent supplement to ensure a well rounded diet.

Eddie

[illumnae]

I basically feed them a varied diet of NLS, Mal's FD Australian Blackworms, Frozen Bloodworms, Hikari FD Bloodworms, Ken's Earthworm sticks and Ken's Veggie sticks. I'll be adding frozen Mysis soon as well. As stated above I haven't exactly been a huge fan of flakes :)

However, I'm finding Ken's Earthworm sticks and Veggie sticks to be very messy. They're too large for the fish to swallow whole, so what they do is wait for it to soften then sift through it. This creates a huge dusty mess in the water and, I suspect, lots of wasted food. Hence, I'm just wondering if there's any downside to switching to Ken's flake version of the Earthworm and Veggie foods instead.

[Eddie]

Yeah, I am definitely not a big fan of messy foods or processed foods that foul the water badly. Flakes are very clean IMO and would be a great substitute for a messy food. I havent used any of Ken's flake but I have used flakes from Angel Plus and my fish love them. ;)

Eddie

[jeff@zina.com]

I use a variety of flakes from Ken's, but I also have a varied diet with live and frozen foods as well. What you feed can also be dependent on other occupants of the tank, if any. And I doubt any two fish keepers will ever use the exact same mix of foods.

Jeff

[Frankr409]

I use 80% New life spectrum pellets and 20 % Omega one color pellet. 5 double drops per day from Eheim feeders.

There appears to be very little wasted food.

There are several reasons I feed the pellet. They sink slowly and give all the fish a chance to eat. The pellets are uniform in size (unlike flake) and drop evenly and in predictable amounts from the eheim feeders.

I supplement with Mals Blackworms, frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen beefheart.

[illumnae]

Ken's replied my email and said that the flake and sticks are identical. The sticks are extruded from the flake he says (what does that mean??). I guess when I finish my current 5lb supply of veggie sticks and 2.5lb of earthworm sticks i'll switch to flake

My only concern is that flake floats and the fish, who are used to eating from the floor, won't be used to eating the flake from the surface :(

[Frankr409]

Ken's replied my email and said that the flake and sticks are identical. The sticks are extruded from the flake he says (what does that mean??). I guess when I finish my current 5lb supply of veggie sticks and 2.5lb of earthworm sticks i'll switch to flake

My only concern is that flake floats and the fish, who are used to eating from the floor, won't be used to eating the flake from the surface :(

Trust me, wherever there is food, discus will eat it. My breeder told me not to buy pellet food that doesn't sink because discus won't eat from the surface...pfffft. Discus eat from anywhere. One of my fish though has learned that if you splash the surface, everything sinks.

[illumnae]

My fish have already learnt that as some of the Hikari FD bloodworm floats even after being soaked. I'll probably just feed it sparingly I guess. They're wild discus so I don't really want to venture too far away from their natural instinct to forage the substrate for food